As part of continuing efforts to increase the speed and functionality of integrated circuits (ICs) such as processors, there has been a continuing need to dissipate ever greater quantities of heat generated by such ICs during normal operation. This has required cooling systems of ever greater capacities.
Until recently, it was acceptable to use a heatsink held in contact with a surface of such ICs to conduct heat away from such ICs and disperse the heat into air blown through the heatsink via a fan. However, the quantities of heat dissipated by such ICs has continued to increase, requiring increases in the dissipative surface area of such heatsinks, the use of ever heavier materials to make such heatsinks (most notably, copper versus aluminum), and the use of ever greater flows of air over the surfaces of such heatsinks. All of these increased requirements have resulted in the provision of ever larger and more cumbersome heatsinks that must somehow be kept in contact with a surface of such ICs attached to a circuitboard without crushing or otherwise damaging either such ICs or the circuitboards to which they are attached.
Indeed, these requirements have each increased to such an extent as to draw into question the entire idea of using a heatsink with a fan in contact with a surface of such an IC as being a desirable solution. As a result, alternatives such as the use of a liquid cooling system are being seriously considered. However the use of a liquid cooling system is not without difficulties. The use of a liquid coolant flowing through hoses, a heat absorber, a heat emitter, a pump, etc., raises difficulties that would be familiar to those skilled in the art of water and steam cooling and heating systems used in homes and buildings, including leaks, variations in pressure, galvanic reactions between components, etc.
As liquid cooling of such ICs shows signs of becoming a new mainstream solution for electronic systems used in high volumes, a need exists to mount the components of such a liquid cooling system within such electronic systems that minimizes such difficulties.